UGANDA
The Horror of Gay Life in Uganda...
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PARIS, November 2, 2005 – It’s Wednesday October 26. The time is around seven in the evening in Kampala, capital of Uganda. The pastor praying with the faithful when the police arrive and breaks up prayers. The Church is closed and the pastor is taken to the police station. His shoes are removed … What is the crime? It is because he is homosexual; worse still, is it because he is a homosexual activist? According to Uganda’s penal code, Articles 140, 141 and 143, there is certainly a risk of life imprisonment. This happened recently. Obviously, the name of this man cannot be revealed for reasons of his personal safety, but he is in Uganda and is the national correspondent for the International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO). For years, this tireless activist has fought for the de-criminalisation of homosexuality in his country. He has begged the ‘Western’ embassies which subsidise the government to apply pressure so that the persecution of gays and lesbians will stop. So far, the efforts of this priest have had no effect. His voice is lost in the desert. No one appears to worry about the homophobic brutalities that terrorise him and his friends. When I was in contact with him last year, he was in despair. Now, he is in prison. But wait… Fortunately, he had some money. He bribes a prison guard and manages to escape. He is now on the road – no shoes … and with little hope. He cannot the risk returning to his home as he is wanted by the police. All he has is what he is wearing – a pair of trousers and the shirt on his back. Perhaps, he thinks, he might, just, have a friend or two somewhere on this planet. Could they help him, he asks himself? Alas, the story of this young pastor is not isolated. On September 27, 1999, the Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, declared that homosexuality is ‘foreign’ to Ugandan culture. He threatened gays and lesbians with immediate arrests. In fact, in the months that followed, five militants of the gay and lesbian association, Right Companion, were imprisoned, beaten and tortured. A young lesbian was even violated – twice. The declaration of President Museveni caused an international reaction; the American State Department issued a warning. But the Ugandan authorities ignored the international condemnation, and the persecutions continued. In 2000, a homosexual militant of another group, Lesgabix, was assassinated in Kampala. Then in 2001, when Christopher Ssenyonjo, a former bishop of the Anglican Church of Uganda, ‘came out’, Roman Catholic Cardinal Wamala publicly reminded everyone that the Church condemns homosexuality “and all forms of contrary behaviour of the laws of God”. Today, this young pastor who has escaped from prison has asked the world to help. Every day I speak with him on the telephone. All his friends, – gay, lesbian, bi or trans – hope that countries as ours in Europe, and beyond, will answer his pleas. They hope that our governments will put pressure on the Ugandan government. What our governments have to do is to officially speak out against these arbitrary arrests, and what inevitably follows. They need to seriously address the basic human rights issues in Uganda. These men and women in Uganda regard us as their last hope. Are we going to be ‘there for them’ when they so desperately need us? Will we consider our own values that we cherish in out ‘westernised’ countries when it comes to the peoples of an African country?
– Louis-Georges Tin For further information, email: tin@idahomophobia.org LINK International Day Against Homophobia website:
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Posted: 2 November 2005 at 09:30 (UK time)